PESHAWAR: The Peshawar city district government is at loggerhead with Town-I and Town-III over the ownership of the bus stands and terminals in the capital city, which are the major source of revenue generation, according to officials.

They said that Town-I and Town-III would collapse financially and their survival would become in danger if the city district government succeeded in getting the ownership of the bus stands and terminals from them. The Town-I administration also brought the matter into the notice of the provincial government and sought its intervention to resolve the issue amicably, they said.

“Actually, the Local Government Act, 2013 is responsible for triggering controversy among different stakeholders,” sources said, adding that the law was unclear on the issue.

According to the Part-B of the first schedule of the law, public transport is the responsibility of the city district. According to that part, the additional group of offices in city district also includes “public transportation and mass transit, passenger and freight transit terminals, traffic planning, engineering and parking”.

Minister says provincial govt will intervene to resolve the issue

However, under the law, the passenger and freight transport and transit station also comes under the functions and powers of tehsil and town municipal administration.

The Section 22 (d) of the law, which is about the functions and powers of the tehsil and town municipal administration, states that they shall exercise control over “land-use, land-subdivision, land development and zoning by public and private sectors for any purpose, including for agriculture, industry, commercial markets, shopping centres; residential, recreation, parks, entertainment, passenger and freight transport and transit station”.

Currently, the general bus stand, several bus terminals on GT Road and Charsadda bus stand are owned by the administration of Town-I while Kohat bus stand on Kohat Road and the Karkhano bus stand are managed by Town-III.

“The bus stands and terminals generate revenue of Rs300 million annually for Town-I. If the bus stand and terminals are snatched by the city district government, Town-I will be unable to pay salaries to its employees,” said an official.

He said that the officials responsible for the distribution of assets among the city district government and towns committed mistakes. Such officials were tasked with judicious distribution of assets before implementation of the local government system, he said.

Zahid Nadeem, the nazim of Town-I, when contacted, said that all bus stands and terminals located in Town-I belonged to them. However, he expressed ignorance about any issue with the city district government regarding ownership of the bus stands.

Mohammad Asim Khan, the district nazim, was not available for comments. Provincial Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, when contacted, confirmed that there were differences among the city district government, Town-I and Town-III over the issue.

During the previous local governments, the bus stands remained either with the city district government or towns that’s why confusion persisted and both claimed the ownership, he said.

The minister said that provincial government had set up district level committees headed by deputy commissioners for distribution of assets among the respective district, tehsils and towns prior to devolution. “Such committees had not performed well,” he added.

The minister said that district nazim Mohammad Asim Khan had also discussed this issue with him. The provincial government would intervene to resolve the issue, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2015

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